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Joe Biden understands that the election looks to be a coin flip at this point and Donald Trump has roughly a 50% chance of winning. For that reason, the President is trying to fill as many vacancies for U.S. district judges and appeals court judges as he can. If his plan works, the next president will have the smallest number of judicial vacancies to fill in 30 years.
Currently, of the 870 Article III judgeships, only 43 (4.9%) are vacant. This is the smallest number since January of 1989, when George H.W. Bush took over. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wants to confirm as many judges as he can in this session of Congress. For that reason, there will be a lame-duck session of the Senate after the election, when he can ram more nominations through. The Senate is not in session now because close to one-third of the members are out campaigning, but the current Senate will come back on November 12 and work on judicial confirmations until the new Senate is seated on January 3. Donald Trump got 234 judges confirmed in his term and Schumer is trying to beat that.
One thing the Democrats are doing may hurt their quest to fill all the vacancies. There is a quaint Senate custom known as the "blue slip." What it means is that when there is a vacancy in [State X], the senators from that state are given blue slips. If they return the blue slips, the Judiciary Committee proceeds with the confirmation process. If they don't, the nominations are de facto killed. Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) has revived this antique procedure. It means that vacancies in red states are not going to be filled, even if Biden has made a nomination. Republicans don't honor the blue-slip system and ram through confirmations in blue states whenever they get the chance.
Needless to say, the outcome of the election could change the equation. If Harris wins and the Democrats hold the upper chamber, Schumer might not burn so much of the midnight oil, since there isn't too much difference between seating a Democrat in January versus seating one in, say, March or April. On the other hand, if Trump wins and/or the Republicans take the Senate, not only will Schumer burn midnight oil by the barrel, he might also put the kibosh on the blue slips.
When Trump took office, there were over 100 judicial vacancies, largely due to the Republicans blocking many of Barack Obama's nominations near the end of his term. This is why Trump got to make so many appointments: Senate Republicans kept the positions open for him.
Traditionally, many judges announce their retirements after Jan. 20, when the new president is sworn in. Most judges want to be replaced by a president of the same party that nominated them. If Harris wins, older Democratic appointees will retire en masse; if Trump wins, Republican ones will. Of course, if the president's party does not control the Senate, some judges will bite their lips and stay seated. Currently, about 100 judges meet the requirements to retire or claim senior status, but many of them are waiting to see who wins the election. (V)